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Water & Soil Remediation

Leaving Contamination in Place

The intractable nature of much groundwater contamination and the inaccessibility of the subsurface to many cleanup technologies have led to a shift in focus away from removing all contaminant mass to trying to determine if contamination remaining in the subsurface is actually posing a threat to human or ecological health. This conceptual shift has been evidenced in several recent cleanup trends, all of which have been the subject of recent WSTB reports. These include the increased use of natural attenuation [view report], bioavailability concepts [view report], and risk-based methods [view report] in general. Many of the reports in this series have been targeted to specific U.S. federal agencies that have either a history of research on groundwater contamination [view report] or are responsible for cleaning up a large number of hazardous waste sites, such as the military. Examples of these include Environmental Cleanup at Navy Facilities: Risk-Based Methods [view report], Environmental Cleanup at Navy Facilities: Adaptive Site Management [view report], and Source Removal [view report]. Books Related to Leaving Contamination in Place
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Bioavailability of Contaminants in Soils and Sediments: Processes, Tools, and Applications,


Environmental Cleanup at Navy Facilities: Adaptive Site Management,


Environmental Cleanup at Navy Facilities: Risk-Based Methods ,


Natural Attenuation for Groundwater Remediation,


Hazardous Materials in the Hydrologic Environment: The Role of the U.S. Geological Survey,


Contaminants in the Subsurface: Source Zone Assessment and Remediation,


Future Options for Management in the Nation's Subsurface Remediation Effort,










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